US President Trump says US forces are annihilating terrorists in Nigeria
United States President Donald Trump has claimed that American forces are “annihilating terrorists” in Nigeria, saying the military is hitting militant groups hard as part of a broader push on global security. Trump made the remarks on January 22, 2026 during the unveiling of a new international initiative called the Board of Peace at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He said that in Nigeria American forces are targeting extremists whom he accused of killing large numbers of Christians and that they have “hit them very hard” in efforts to degrade their capabilities.
Trump’s statement reflected his broader criticism of the security situation in Nigeria, which he has characterised as a crisis involving violent religious persecution and mass killings. He used his speech to link the U.S. security actions including military strikes carried out in coordination with Nigerian authorities to what he described as progress against extremist threats in the region.
Nigeria’s government and security officials have rejected his framing of insecurity as primarily religious in nature and repeatedly stressed that terrorism and violent extremism in the country affect all communities, whether Muslim, Christian or otherwise. They also emphasise that Nigeria leads its own counter-terrorism efforts and that international cooperation where it exists is conducted through formal security cooperation channels rather than unilateral U.S. action.
The U.S. military has previously conducted airstrikes in northwest Nigeria, focused on militant camps linked to Islamic State factions, with Nigeria’s federal government confirming collaborative operations with U.S. Africa Command.
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